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Jacobello del Fiore: ''Madonna and Child''
Jacobello del Fiore: ''Madonna and Child''
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''Madonna and Child'' is a Jacobello del Fiore painting that in some ways aligns with its contemporaries and is comparable to them, and in other ways subverts standards, expectations, and unspoken stylistic parameters that had been set by those same contemporaries. For example, the way that it portrays the child is understandably and expectedly crude when considering the time period in which this piece was produced. The child looks less like a young person and more like an average sized adult that has been scaled down and shrunk in proportion to Mary. this is due in part to the fact that Renaissance depictions of infants, babies, and young people of any kind were less sophisticated and slower to develop than the depictions of adults, animals, architecture, nature, landscapes, and most all else.
''Madonna and Child'' is a painting that aligns with its contemporaries and is comparable to them. For example, the way that it portrays the child is expectedly crude: the child looks like an adult person that has been scaled down and shrunk in proportion to Mary. This is due in part to the fact that Renaissance depictions of children were less sophisticated than the depictions of adults.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}


 While the portrayal of the child and the overall proportions of the figures in the piece are in line stylistically with other works of the period, Art historians note that the overall mood of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus is unexpectedly tender and loving when compared to the Byzantine works that this piece is otherwise evoking.  Mary’s posture is less rigid than it is in most depictions. She is turned slightly towards Jesus and is looking at him, two attributes rarely found in the works Jacobello would have looked to as inspiration. As for baby Jesus himself, the child’s posture is casual, and he happily extends a hand out to his mother, also a contrast to the precedent set by other paintings. Both Mary and Jesus are smiling and affectionate towards each other, as opposed to to stoic or expressionless interpretations of these figures. These stylistic liberties that Jacobello del Fiore takes distinguish him both from his contemporaries and from the Byzantine style that he would otherwise be emulating in a more derivative manner with these works.
 While the portrayal of the child and the overall proportions of the figures in the piece are in line stylistically with other works of the period, Art historians note that the overall mood of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus is unexpectedly tender and loving when compared to the Byzantine works that this piece is otherwise evoking.  Mary’s posture is less rigid than it is in most depictions. She is turned slightly towards Jesus and is looking at him, two attributes rarely found in the works Jacobello would have looked to as inspiration. As for baby Jesus himself, the child’s posture is casual, and he happily extends a hand out to his mother, also a contrast to the precedent set by other paintings. Both Mary and Jesus are smiling and affectionate towards each other, as opposed to to stoic or expressionless interpretations of these figures. These stylistic liberties that Jacobello del Fiore takes distinguish him both from his contemporaries and from the Byzantine style that he would otherwise be emulating in a more derivative manner with these works.

Revision as of 20:21, 14 January 2018

Jacobello del Fiore
Jacobello Del Fiore's Virgin and Child
Bornc. 1370
Diedc. 1490
NationalityItalian
Known forPainting
StyleGothic early in career, became more modern
MovementRenaissance

Jacobello del Fiore (c. 1370 – 1439) was a Venetian artist in the late fourteenth century and early fifteenth century.[1] He is known for his youthful career steeped in the Late Gothic style popularized by Altichiero da Verona and Jacopo Avanzi, two of his contemporaries, and his later mature work that returned to a local Venetian style established by the school of Paolo Veneziano, an artist and workshop proprietor with notable Byzantine inspiration in his work .[1] This stylistic return to his roots sets him apart from Niccolò di Pietro and Zanino di Pietro, some of his Venetian contemporaries that he is often associated with.[1] During his lifetime, he received commissions primarily on the Adriatic coast and in Venice.[2]

Early life and works

Birth and family

Jacobello del Fiore is likely to have been born around 1375, since by the time of his marriage in 1394, he was still under the tutelage of his father, Francesco del Fiore.[3] While it is known that Jacobello del Fiore was married in 1394, the identity of his spouse is unknown, as is whether or not he had kids, and, if so, how many he had. Jacobello's father, Francesco, was a painter himself: in 1376 he is documented in a contract as the chief officer of the confraternity, or organization dedicated to recognizing Christian works of charity, Scuola dei Pittori.[4] Additionally, Francesco headed a workshop that included Jacobello and his two brothers, Nicola, who died in 1404, when Jacobello was in his twenties or thirties, and Pietro.[4]

The "Master of the Giovaneli Madonna"

While Jacobello's earliest surviving and confirmed work is dated in 1407, he is thought to be the painter behind a Crucifixion piece in the Matthiesen Collection and the Virgin and Child of Piazzo Giovaneli, both painted in the late 14th century.[5] The Crucifix was a common theme in Jacobello's earliest works, though as a subject it was a fairly common focus of many painters at the time.[6]Art historian Andrea de Marchi was the first to suggest that a single author was responsible for these 'neo-giottoesque' paintings inspired by mainland painters Altichiero and Jacopo Avanzi and coined the author's unknown name as "Master of the Giovaneli Madonna".[7] In the Matthiesen Crucifixion, Christ hangs on his cross in the center of the scene, dividing the followers of Christ on the left with the soldiers on the right.[8] These details reveal that the author of the painting must have been familiar with the Late Gothic movement of the mainland and had Venetian training as well, due to the depiction of Longinus who lances Christ and the centurion who orders Christ's legs to be broken, two figures that also appear in Altichiero's Crucifixion in the Oratorio di San Giorgio, and also the city wall that closes the scene, a technique used by Paolo Veneziano.[9] Similarly, art historian Carlo Volpe noted that a series of small Passion panels painted in the 1390s––Agony in the Garden (Vatican Picture Gallery), Lamentation (Vatican Picture Gallery), Way to Calvary (British Royal Collection), and Arrest of Christ (private collection)––share a Paduan influence and stylistic similarity with that of the Matthiesen Crucifixion."[10] De Marchi also attributes The Madonna of Humility in a provincial museum in Lecce to the "Master of the Giovaneli Madonna,"[11] thus connecting this work with the Matthiesen Crucifixion and the Passion panels as well. In 1401, Jacobello sent a polyptych, which has since been lost, to the church of San Cassiano in Pesaro, and was seen there by 18th century art historian Luigi Lanzi.[12] The Madonna of Humility in Lecce, as art historian Illeana Chiappini di Sorio claims in her 1968 article, may well have belonged to this very polyptych in San Cassiano.[13] Thus, the Madonna of Humility in Lecce, as hypothesized by art historian Daniele Benati, connects all of the above works by the "Master of the Giovaneli Madonna" to none other than Jacobello del Fiore.[14]

A progression in style

The year 1401 marks a transition in Jacobello's career from a more archaic, gothic style, utilized in the last decade of the Trecento and captured in the Matthiesen Crucifixion, to a more modern style concerned with line, as seen in the Giovaneli Madonna and Crucifixion with Mourners and Saints in a French private collection.[15] The latter, as De Marchi emphasizes, still derives from Altichiero and Jacopo Avanzi but moves beyond the sterner style of the Matthiesen Crucifixion by employing a looser Gothic flexibility.[16] Both these works were probably painted between 1401 and 1407, the date of Jacobello's first surviving, verified painting.[15]

The Matthiesen Crucifixion which symbolizes Jacobello's older gothic style, contains allusions to Jerusalem and to biblical imagery such as the Golgotha, the location where Jesus was crucified. This older gothic style that Jacobello often used, exemplified by the Matthiesen Crucifixion, is characterized distinct composition and posing of figures from either a direct front or side view, sweeping lines, and vivid color palates, though the scheme of the Matthiesen Crucifixion is especially bright.[17]

Jacobello del Fiore: The Crucifixion and The Adoration of the Magi, Stockholm, Nationalmuseumn

In 1407 Jacobello painted a triptych of the Virgin of Mercy with Saints James and Anthony Abbot now residing in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Pesaro but originally for the church of Santa Maria in Montegranaro.[18] This triptych, according to Benati, reveals Jacobello's interest in the latest artistic trends: its technique and style are up to date, and the pinched nose of the Virgin points toward the influence of Lombard's Michelino da Besozzo.[19] Similar influences found in Jacobello's triptych of the Adoration of the Magi in Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, place it chronologically near the Virgin of Mercy triptych.[19]

In 1408 Jacobello is believed to have completed another Crucifixion scene with the aid of wood carver Antonio di Bonvesin for a parish church in Casteldimezzo in Pesaro.[18] The following year he is believed to have painted a tavola for Pesaro, first seen by Lanzi and later hypothetically identified by art critic Keith Christiansen as belonging to the Polyptych of the Blessed Michelina.[20] These two paintings demonstrate his growing professional reputation achieved before the death of his father in 1409-1411.[18]

Doge's Palace commission

As proof of his prominence, in 1412 the Venetian signory employed Jacobello with an annual salary of one hundred ducats, however this stipend was later reduced to 50 ducats because of Venice's war with Dalmatia.[21]

Jacobello del Fiore: The Lion of St. Mark (In situ), 1415 (detail)

Between 1409 and 1415, Jacobello is believed to have been commissioned to decorate the Sala del Maggior Consiglio (Hall of the Great Council) in the Doge's Palace, putting him in direct contact with advanced mainland painters such as Gentile da Fabriano, Pisanello, and Michelino da Besozzo.[22] The influence of Fabriano and Michelino can be seen in Jacobello's previously mentioned 1409 Polyptych of the Blessed Michelina and in the later Virgin of Mercy between Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Accademia of Venice, likely painted in the mid 1410s.[23] Michelino's influence can be seen in the heavy-limbed infant and areas of raised pastiglia decoration in the Virgin of Mercy and additionally in the 1415 Lion of St Mark (in situ), specifically in the animal's abstract tail and decorative wings.[22]

Fabriano's influence can be seen in Jacobello's use of luxurious drapery and decorative sophistication; however, instead of adopting Fabriano's empirical attention to detail of nature and surface structure, Jacobello, as noted by Benati, upheld a stylized, abstract use of line and devotion to metallic appearances, giving his work a heraldic appearance.[23] This conscious decision, as Benati further argues, marks a shift in Jacobello's style that loyally turns back to his early influences of the local Trecento tradition of Lorenzo Veneziano.[23]

Later works and final years

The Life of St. Lucy, Francesco's Memorial, and final years

Jacobello del Fiore: Stories from the Life of St. Lucy, Fermo, Pinacoteca Civica

Commissioned for the Adriatic coastal town of Fermo, this altarpiece (Civic Museum, Fermo) is considered his masterpiece.[22] The first record of the work dates to 1763 when it was recorded in the inventory of Saint Lucy's Church in Fermo.[24] The paintings, restored in 1950, highlight the refulgent beauty of the Gothic style that does not attempt to be naturalistic.[24] Instead, Jacobello returns to the narrative style of Paolo Veneziano and his Venetian roots as opposed to moving in the same direction as Gentile and Pisanello.[22]

The eight scenes of the altarpiece depict St. Lucy visiting St. Agatha's tomb, distributing her possessions to the poor, refusing to sacrifice to idols, resisting the pull of oxen to a brothel, burning at the stake, getting stabbed in the throat, receiving Holy Communion before death, and finally, her burial.[22] Jacobello places the first three scenes amid Gothic-style architecture and the latter five scenes in open spaces with of rocks and grass, which in their detail recall the French tapestries woven in the mille-fleurs style.[24] Additionally, Jacobello also captures the extravagance of 15th century garb in the fifth scene depicting her failed burning at the stake.[24]

In 1433 Jacobello erected a tomb in dedication to his father Francesco in San Giovanni e Paolo (now lost).[25] Jacobello clothed the effigy of his father in a full-length robe to emphasize his social prestige.[25] Benati notes that this stone memorial not only highlights the elevation of artists in that day from simple artisans to revered members of society but also celebrates the vocation of painting, a profession that by 1433 had given Jacobello much wealth and celebrity.[25]

Benati concludes, "It was Jacobello who had to face the challenge of renewing local figurative culture from within, by degrees, and who ultimately succeeded in connecting the thread that tied it to its fourteenth-century principles. In the light of his youthful adherence to the Paduan neo-Giottoesque style, we can better understand how keenly, starting in 1407, he sought to adapt the novelty of the Lombard late Gothic style to local sensibilities."[26]

During the 1430s he is believed to have mentored a young Carlo Crivelli, who was to be later known for his small colorful temperas of landscapes, fruit, flowers, and other accessories.[27] Jacobello's adopted son, Ercole del Fiore, appears in a 1461 record stating his vocation as a painter.[28] Jacobello died in 1439 in his sixties.[28]

List of Works with Technical Descriptions

 
Name of Work Year Produced Medium Size Current Location
Madonna and Child[29] Unknown Tempera on panel 88 x 62 cm Private collection
Crucifixion[29] 1400 Tempera and gold on panel 127 x 135 cm Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
Virgin and Child[29] 1410  Panel 57 x 39 cm Museo Correr, Venice
Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia[29] 1415 Tempera on panel 86 x 113 cm Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel[29] 1421 Tempera on panel 208 x 490 cm Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
Coronation of the Virgin[30] 1438 Tempera on panel 283 x 303 cm Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Madonna and Child[30]

Jacobello del Fiore: Madonna and Child

Madonna and Child is a painting that aligns with its contemporaries and is comparable to them. For example, the way that it portrays the child is expectedly crude: the child looks like an adult person that has been scaled down and shrunk in proportion to Mary. This is due in part to the fact that Renaissance depictions of children were less sophisticated than the depictions of adults.[citation needed]

 While the portrayal of the child and the overall proportions of the figures in the piece are in line stylistically with other works of the period, Art historians note that the overall mood of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus is unexpectedly tender and loving when compared to the Byzantine works that this piece is otherwise evoking.  Mary’s posture is less rigid than it is in most depictions. She is turned slightly towards Jesus and is looking at him, two attributes rarely found in the works Jacobello would have looked to as inspiration. As for baby Jesus himself, the child’s posture is casual, and he happily extends a hand out to his mother, also a contrast to the precedent set by other paintings. Both Mary and Jesus are smiling and affectionate towards each other, as opposed to to stoic or expressionless interpretations of these figures. These stylistic liberties that Jacobello del Fiore takes distinguish him both from his contemporaries and from the Byzantine style that he would otherwise be emulating in a more derivative manner with these works.

The panel upon which this painting was created is adorned with specialized, intricate, and ornamental carving in lieu of a painted background. A plain layer of gold fills up most of the space around the Virgin Mary and Jesus. Jacobello opts to use solid color and to form patterns and visual interest through carving rather than a painted landscape as the background, though greenery and foliage are still present in the painting. The halos appear differently around the heads or Mary and Jesus than they do in some of Jacobello’s other paintings. Here, the halos are created by dotting around the figures’ heads. 

Much like with many of Jacobello del Fiore’s works, the shading on the subjects of this painting doesn’t appear to come from a realistic or singular light source. This was common among paintings from this time period, as realistic lighting and shading in painting by means of considering a light source had not yet been widely popularized. Just as the depiction of clothing and fabric is expectedly advanced, the portrayal of foliage and plants as scenery is understandably flat and two dimensional considering this painting’s Byzantine influences. The hair of baby Jesus and Mary also looks somewhat flat and two dimensional, but this is more likely due to the way that the painting has aged than a choice made my Jacobello.

Another significant feature of this work with regards to proportions is the bodily proportions of the Virgin Mary. In order to make the Madonna look proper in the eyes of viewers of the painting while sitting down, her legs are made unrealistically long. If Mary were to stand up in the form that she takes in this piece, she would appear abnormally tall. This is a fairly common phenomenon not just among Renaissance paintings, but in Renaissance sculptures as well. This proportional artistic license continues to persist in paintings and sculptures even past the Renaissance.    

Crucifixion[30]

Jacobello del Fiore: Crucifixion, 1400

This piece is unique from many of Jacobello del Fiore’s other paintings and artworks because it features a golden background. This effect is achieved using thin golden leaf, a material that gives the piece a luxurious and premium feel.  The inclusion of gold as a material in this painting increases its value compared to other works of Jacobello and of his contemporaries not just because gold itself is a rare and cherished material, but because of the difficulty of the process that it takes to achieve gold of the proper thinness so that it can be manipulated and used for artwork.  In addition to its value, the gold foil also allows for the halos that some of the figures in the painting possess to be created simply by not painting in the desired halo area with tempera paint, as the golden background serves as apt coloration. This effect is especially noticeable on Christ himself.

Art historians widely presume that Crucifixion was a single part of a larger whole work or altarpiece, but whether the rest of that larger work was also golden in background is unknown. Much like in some of Jacobello’s other works, proportions and scaling play an important role in the overall compositional makeup of this piece. Jesus is presented on the same plane as all of the other figures in the painting, in that he is portrayed as approximately the same distance away from the viewer as the other characters, yet he appears to be much larger than any other person in the frame. Christ’s proportional domination of the composition of the painting, or the proportional domination of any central subject in the composition of its respective painting, for that matter, was a stylistic tool not used exclusively by Jacobello del Fiore, but instead it was a common Renaissance technique used in order to place emphasis on a subject.  Most of the bright color from this piece comes from clothing, ranging from red to blue and orange tones. The color of the clothing is especially accentuated, when viewing this painting in modern day, by the skin tones of the figures, which have become muted and faded over time.

Another particularly noteworthy attribute of this painting is that while the plethora of people that surround Jesus may look like a randomly distributed crowd to the naked eye, they are actually placed in a sort of continuum or time line, and include significant people such as Saint John and Mary Magdalene.  The figures have sequential and chronological significance when viewed from left to right, as they tell the story leading up to the crucifixion depicted in the painting. It should also be noted that the attempted use of perspective is employed in this piece. While there does not appear to be one set or standard vanishing point or horizon line, the wood of the cross and the stone of the wall behind Christ appear to have depth. This was about in line with how advanced the depiction of perspective had developed up to that point.  The rocks present in the foreground of the piece are also developed in a realistic manner with regard to shading. The individual components of this painting were accurate on their own, but when put together in relation to another, hey made the piece look more like a façade than a snapshot of a scene.

Crucifixion illustrates and showcases Jacobello del Fiore’s level of proficiency with regards to human anatomy, and his attempts to pose figures in more natural or realistic positions than they had been in the past.  This piece, one of his most famous, is used by art historians to demonstrate Jacobello’s progression, and first attempts separate himself from the Byzantine art styles that preceded him.

Virgin and Child

Jacobello del Fiore: Virgin and Child, 1410

Virgin and Child is considered by art historians to be one of Jacobello del Fiore’s most important and defining works. Similar to Madonna and Child, Virgin and Child depicts the Virgin Mary caring for baby Jesus.  For such a significant artwork in the canon of Jacobello’s career, it is one of his smallest. It wasn’t abnormal in Jacobello’s time for an artist of any professional caliber to have multiple different paintings of the same subject. In fact, due to the often religious nature of the early Renaissance, especially in fourteenth century Venice, there were only a few subjects available for an artist to seriously paint based upon demand or commission.

This painting is unique among Jacobello del Fiore’s body of work in that it utilizes what may be the most realistic proportions for human beings in his entire body of work.  This is an especially significant feature of this painting considering that it was produced during a phase where his artworks were inspired with Byzantine sensibilities of early fourteenth century Venetian artists.  The depiction of baby Jesus in this work is uncharacteristically realistic and accurately proportioned to how a small infant would look and be posed against its mother.

These proportions, and the way that Jacobello chooses to pose the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, are in stark contrast to his earlier work, Madonna and Child. This previous work features young Christ depicted more like a scaled down adult than an actual child or baby, and while art historians commend Madonna and Child for posing its subjects in a casual and candid way for the time, Virgin and Child amplifies this strategy and does it in a much more sizable way. The composition features Mary and Jesus much closer and more personally. Madonna and Child was a full body image, while Virgin and Child is treated more like an intimate portrait with a maternal mood. 

Though the current condition of Virgin and Child is poor and somewhat dilapidated, the colors have been preserved fairly well, and retain vibrancy. In its original state, it is presumed that Virgin and Child was one of Jacobello del Fiore’s brightest artworks, especially when compared to the darker color schemes of his later, more Gothic inspired pieces like Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel and Coronation of the Virgin. The brightness from this piece comes mainly from the clothing worn by the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. These garments feature vivid pigments. Mary in particular sports a large bold pattern on one of her fabrics, a feature unique to this painting among Jacobello’s repertoire. Similar to some of Jacobello’s other works, however, is the background of this piece. Though it does not have any advanced, complex, or ornamental framing, carving, or patterning like some of his other works, Virgin and Child has a solid golden background of this painting, noticeably split and cracked through time.

Also similar to some of Jacobello del Fiore’s other works are the halos on the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.  They are created through texturing on the panel, making them one of the only distinguishing features in the otherwise consistently solid and flat golden background.  In the style of Jacobello’s other works from this time period, there doesn’t appear to be one single light source to which all of the objects adhere. Instead, each object is, unintentionally, painted as if it was lit by a different source to create the aesthetic look for which the artist strived.

This work is important in Jacobello del Fiore’s career in the eyes of art historians because it illustrates his progression through time, and also showcases how he was influential, as the works of other artists like Antonio Vivarini and Giambono emulate this artwork, which came before theirs [2].

Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia

Jacobello del Fiore: Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia, 1415

Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia depicts the Virgin Mary in a central position, flanked on one side by Saint John the Baptist and on the other side by Saint John the Evangelist.  The Virgin Mary has crowds of people intimately surrounding her.  Not much of an emphasis is placed on depth or perspective in this piece. The plain solid golden background with less ornamental decoration in the form of carving or pattern than some of Jacobello del Fiore’s other works mainly contributes to this flatter aesthetic.

This piece overall represents the beginning of Jacobello’s return to the style that he originally had an affinity for: that of Byzantine inspired early fourteenth century Venetian painting.  This stylistic “return to his roots” is evident in many aspects of this particular artwork, including the shading.  The color palate of this work and the manner in which the figures are shaded is more similar to some of Jacobello’s earlier works such as Crucifixion than his later, more Gothic inspired artworks like Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. Though art historians consider this movement a reversion to an older style on Jacobello’s part, they do not consider it a regression in terms of technical aptitude. Though Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia favors an older style, the technical mastery that Jacobello since earlier works like his Crucifixion makes itself evident in this rebirth of style.

Other elements of this piece that affirm these art historians’ assertions are the depiction of cloth, hair and skin, compared to Jacobello’s earlier works.  While in other works, cloth and fabrics were treated realistically in terms of shading but lacking in consistency in terms of light source, in Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia, clothing and fabrics are treated in the same realistic manner, the lighting and shading on those clothes and fabrics is consistent.  The fabrics are even more detailed in this artwork than in any of Jacobello del Fiore’s other pieces because the viewer can discern subtle textures within the fabrics, being able tot tell the difference between a velvety fabric and a more silky fabric. Additional effects are used such as frayed tattering on the figure on the left of this image and tiny, intricate detailwork done on the trim of some of these figures garments. Texturing in general in Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia is notably advanced.  This can be seen not just in the aforementioned examples, but in the landscape that figures stand on.

The rocky surface on the leftmost side of the image is rendered skillfully considering the time period, and a measurable improvement can be seen in the depiction of vegetation in this painting compared to Madonna and Child. Since it is unknown when Madonna and Child was painted, art historians can use Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia as a reference to determine that Madonna and Child was completed before this painting. The foliage in Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia is accurately colored, realisitically shaded, and appropriately layered.  Hair in this artwork is curly and stylized, and skin is depicted in a similar way to its representation in Jacobello del Fiore’s earlier works of this same style, except here there are more realistic wrinkles. And creases of the skins of the figures in Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia.

The composition of this piece favors a more Byzantine inspired sensibility because of the way that the different depictions of figures are bordered and sectioned off. The proportional difference between representations of humans is more drastic in Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia than it is in any of Jacobello del Fiore’s other works. The regular common people are, in this painting, significantly smaller than the Virgin Mary which they are drawing towards. In fact, these figures are so small that the Madonna shelters them underneath her clothing.

Halos are portrayed differently in this artwork than they are in any of Jacobello del Fiore’s other artworks.  Previously, they had been depicted as opaque golden circles around characters’ heads or as implied dotted rings through subtle texturing. Here they are created through texturing and some dotting, but the intended effect is much more intentional and ornamental as opposed to the prior more ethereal iterations.

The characters in this piece are overall more stylized in terms of their bodily proportions that characters in a Jacobello del Fiore piece usually are.  This can be observed most notably in the exposed lower legs of he saint on the left. The characters a re portrayed in a slenderer and more exaggerated manner.

Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel

Painted for the Magistrato del Proprio in the Doge's Palace in 1421 (now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice), and also referred to simply as The Triptych of Justice, Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel established a distinct style that dictated Venetian painting for more than a decade.[22] The center figure represents both justice and Venice, with a scale in one hand and a sword of punishment in the other.[22] The scroll behind her head reads, "I will carry out the admonition of the angels and the holy word: gentle with the pious, harsh with the evil, and haughty with the proud."[22] On the left panel St. Michael battles a dragon and holds a scroll that asks Venice/Justice to "commend the purged souls to the scales of benignity."[22] On the right panel Angel Gabriel declares himself as messenger to Mary and asks Venice to guide men through the darkness. As a both civil and criminal court, this commission celebrates both functions of the Magistrato del Proprio.[31] Giambono's St Michael and Michele di Matteo's altarpiece of the Virgin with Saints both pay homage to this triptych, testaments to its influence.[22]

Jacobello del Fiore: Justice Between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, 1421    

Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel is one of Jacobello del Fiore’s most famous works. It marks the peak of his stylistic shift. Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel is noteworthy in that it is one of Jacobello del Fiore’s longest paintings, coming in at over 400 centimeters in width. Apart from its unique size proportions, this piece is particularly noteworthy in that it represents a shift in style from the Byzantine inspired late fourteenth century Venetian painting that Jacobello was known for into a look with more gothic sensibilities. This could be noted both in the overall composition of Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, in the posing and display of the figures present, and in other subtle details. 

The stylistic shift that Jacobello underwent can be attributed, in the opinion of many art historians, to Gentile de Fabriano, who was commissioned by the Venetian Republic to paint the Great Council Chamber of the Palace of the Doges, who were religious leaders in Venice. When Gentile took this job, he painted with clear courtly gothic inspiration. This style clearly influenced many artists living in Venice at the time who, up until then, had been practicing a more Byzantine inspired early fourteenth century venetian painting style. Jacobello del Fiore was one of these artists affected, and in many ways, this painting can be seen in the canon of Jacobello’s career as his most notable gothic piece in the spectrum of his stylistic shift.

Another notable aspect of Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel in terms of its differences from some of Jacobello’s earlier works is its texturing.  While the usage of texturing to define border and background had been seen before in some of his previous works such as Madonna and Child, the usage of texturing as a means to portray actual subjects within the painting, as is the case with the armor and decorative elements of both archangels, some of the clothing of the women representing Justice, her sword hilt, her crown, and her scales, new for the time. The depiction of animals is also rare and uncommon for Jacobello, yet seen here with the two Venetian lions that flank lady Justice.  The halos of the two archangels are more intricately detailed and complex than the halos of figures in any of Jacobello’s other pieces.  The level of detail in this piece in general is greater than in most all of his other artworks, which is another reason that art historians consider this piece to be the height of Jacobello’s gothic phase. Worth of note is the progression that this piece marks compared to Jacobello’s others in terms of improvement in the depiction of cloth and fabric, human skin, hair, and consistent shading. This artwork is considered important not just as a landmark in Jacobello del Fiore’s career, but as a progression of his technical skills and proficiency.  It was the knowledge that Jacobello gained and the mastery of technical skill that he achieved through this piece that allowed his later confident retardataire return to his roots when his works leaned back more towards a Byzantine inspired style.

This painting is also considered to be more metaphorical and symbolic than Jacobello del Fiore’s others, even those highly steeped with symbolism, like Coronation of the Virgin and Crucifixion, because Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, as the title implies, contains a physical manifestation of the concept of justice.  This piece is divided into three sections in a way that historians suspect that Crucifixion was intended to be divided, Crucifixion itself being the middle piece.

Coronation of the Virgin[30]

Jacobello del Fiore: Coronation of the Virgin, 1438

One of Jacobello Del Fiore’s largest discovered works, this painting measures almost 300 centimeters in both width and height, and depicts the Virgin Mary’s acceptance into heaven, which is metaphorically represented as her son, Jesus, crowning her in front of a grand audience.  While the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ are fairly common subjects in Renaissance paintings in Venice, this particular scene is more unique and less common than many scenes featuring these two characters in conventional Venetian Renaissance Art. Adding to the superlative aspects of this painting is the fact that it contains what is perhaps the most total represented figures in any single piece throughout Jacobello del Fiore’s entire body of work.  The border of this painting is standard and rectangular at the bottom with two corners and rounded at the top, in an oblong manner. At the center of the piece, as was usual in the composition of many paintings produced in and during this time period, Jacobello’s other works themselves not being exceptions, were Jesus and Mary, with Jesus placing a crown onto Mary’s head as they both sit on elaborate and extravagant thrones.  

Filling up the surrounding architecture of these protagonist figures is a multitude of religiously significant people, serving as a sort of ceremonial audience to the crowning of Mary.  These figures are all a part of the canon of the Christian Bible and the Catholic Church as people who have passed on, and are proverbially “cheering the Virgin Mary on” into heaven.  Figures are seated to the left of Jesus and Mary, to the right of them, and even below them, both within the columns of the structure upon which Jesus and Mary are seated, and a layer below that, among greenery and foliage beneath the base of the architectural structure.  The clothing of these figures varies, but is generally used to distinguish and delineate different types of people such as apostles, martyrs, saints, virgins, and angels, through the color of the fabric. The depiction of clothing and the way that it wrinkles and manipulates itself on the human body is, as was usual during this period of the Renaissance, sophisticated and proficient, more so than other aspects even within this painting itself, such as accurate anatomy and proportions.  The overall color palate of this painting leans darker, though it is hard to know for sure how accurate the current state of the painting compares to the original in terms of color accuracy.

The shading both of figures and of the architecture indicates that there does not seem to be a single light source in this piece, which was common for the period in which it was produced.  Jacobello del Fiore, despite these technical inaccuracies that made the painting look less realistic than it could have looked and which were a product of the styles of the time period, proves himself to be proficient in depicting advanced three dimensional objects with the complex architecture which dominates much of this scene.  

Jesus and Mary are depicted with halos. While halos were interpreted through art in many different ways throughout Renaissance Venice (and throughout the Renaissance in general) their depiction here, as opaque golden circles behind the heads of their subjects, was a fairly common representation.  Though the mood in this piece is portrayed as reverent and ceremonial, celebratory aspects are also present, ranging from an angelic choir, to period-appropriate instruments, and foliage alluding to the Garden of Eden.  Also noteworthy are the scale and proportion of figures in relation to each other within this painting. Jesus and Mary are both depicted as significantly larger than any of the other figures in the piece. This is to emphasize and delineate their importance.

Legacy

For many years afer his death, Jacobello del Fiore was not given the due that field experts find appropriate today as one of the leading Venetian artists of his era.[32] Keith Christiansen writes in his book on Gentile da Fabriano, “Jacobello del Fiore suffers from a greater critical misunderstanding than any other early Venetian artist. R. Longhi judged him a lesser personality than Niccolò di Pietro or Zanino because his works seemed deeply linked to Venetian painting rather than that of the mainland. In fact, Jacobello was the greatest local artist of his generation."[33] Art historians such as Daniele Benati have clarified Jacobello's role as the link between emerging Late Gothic style of the Lombardy artists and the local Trecento tradition of Venetian painters, restoring his important role in Venetian art and the changing styles of the time.[34] Benati concludes, "It was Jacobello who had to face the challenge of renewing local figurative culture from within, by degrees, and who ultimately succeeded in connecting the thread that tied it to its fourteenth-century principles. In the light of his youthful adherence to the Paduan neo-Giottoesque style, we can better understand how keenly, starting in 1407, he sought to adapt the novelty of the Lombard late Gothic style to local sensibilities."[35] Despite his influence and prominence in the early fifteenth century Renaissance Venetian arena of painting, Jacobello del Fiore is not remembered as a major player or impactful figure of the Renaissance by the modern mainstream, most likely due to a combination of factors including that he was out-shined by his contemporaries, not as much documentation exists about about him as does about similar artists of his time, and that it is difficult to concisely describe his contributions to Renaissance painting in a way that is digestible to the laymen general public.

Though the date at which it was completed is unknown, Madonna and Child[30] is an important piece in Jacobello del Fiore’s body of work. It established a baseline for his Byzantine inspired early fourteenth century Venetian painting style. It also established that Jacobello had an affinity for adhering to some aspects of this style but at the same time making it his own through the more casual interaction of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. It also was an early instance of intricately textured elements being incorporated into his paintings. Crucifixion[36] is one of Jacobello’s more well known works, and, in addition to being assumed to be one central part of a larger altarpiece, is significant in its medium of thin gold on panel, and in that it created a continuum or storyline by arranging important or influential characters throughout Jesus’s crucifixion from left to right to tell the story of his death. Virgin and Child [37]is essentially considered a more updated and sophisticated version of Madonna and Child. It showcases Jacobello’s progression in terms of composition, use of color, proportions, shading, the representation of fabric, skin, and hair, and the depiction of halos.  Though it is currently in poor condition, art historians consider it to be one of the most influential and significant artworks in Jacobello del Fiore’s body of work because of all of the Venetian artists that it helped to inspire. Triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia[38] is one of Jacobello’s most stylistically distinct pieces in that it heavily exaggerates proportions, not just of the size of human beings in relation to each other, but of humans’ body parts in relation to each other. It continues the Byzantine inspired tradition of segmenting central subjects apart by means of border through the background.  It shows a more advanced technical mastery of the production of fabric of different textures, skin with wrinkles, and hair of unique texture and curl. Justice Between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel[39], otherwise known as Triptych of Justice is considered the most Gothic piece that Jacobello ever produced; the peak of his stylistic shift from Byzantine inspired work to a courtlier Gothic style. More naturally posed figures, more intricate details, more accurate shading, and a darker color palate were stapes of the gothic movement that Jacobello incorporated into this piece. Jacobello also chose to lean into metaphor here, depicting the abstract concept of justice as a woman holding a sword and scales. Coronation of the Virgin[40] is one of Jacobello del Fiore’s largest works, and one that art historians consider to be one of his most impressive, due to its grasp and mastery of intricate and complicated architecture, its use of proportions to indicate importance, its gothic color palate, its symbolic depiction of abstract concepts, and the sheer amount of people that its able to represent in one painting.  All of the different colors of garments that the audience members in this painting wear are representative of the role that they had in the bible.

Jacobello del Fiore’s body of work tells the story of his life, or, at least, of his artistic life. Strictly biographical or autobiographical information about him is scarce, and even so, the information that researchers and art historians have gleaned is at best lacking in crucial areas and at worst purely speculative or built on educated assumption. There isn’t even a known portrait of Jacobello himself in existence.  Truly the best way to obtain information about Jacobello is by examining his work. The progression of his landmark paintings throughout the course of his career tell the story of the subjects that he was interested in painting, the way that he decided to go about portraying certain figures the way that he decided to incorporate certain elements, the way he decided to implement stylistic features, the way he decided to borrow from those that inspired him while building on their work and making sure not to be derivative, the way that he decided to subvert the expected standards of the stylistic movements that came before him, and the way he decided to make artistic choice that would define artistic movements after him. Jacobello del Fiore’s paintings are integral primary sources for art historians and casual researchers alike to understand this artist.

References

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  3. ^ Benati, Daniele. Jacobello del Fiore: His Oeuvre and a Sumptuous Crucifixion. Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd. p. 26. ISBN 9780955536618.
  4. ^ a b Benati, Daniele. Jacobello del Fiore: His Oeuvre and a Sumptuous Crucifixion. Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd. p. 20. ISBN 9780955536618. {{cite book}}: |first2= missing |last2= (help)
  5. ^ Benati, Daniele (2007). Jacobello del Fiore: His Oeuvre and a Sumptuous Crucifixion. London: Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd. p. 16. ISBN 9780955536618.
  6. ^ Schulz, Anne Markham. “Antonio Bonvicino and Venetian Crucifixes of the Early Quattrocento.” Mitteilungen Des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, vol. 48, no. 3, 2004, pp. 293–332. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27655363
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  20. ^ Christiansen, Keith (1982). Gentile da Fabriano. Cornell University. p. 122. ISBN 0701124687.
  21. ^ Hourihane, Colum P., ed. (2012). The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture Vol 1. 198 Madison avenue, New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 447–448.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
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  29. ^ a b c d e "JACOBELLO DEL FIORE". www.wga.hu. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
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  32. ^ Benati, Daniele (2007). Jacobello del Fiore: His Oeuvre and a Sumptuous Crucifixion. London: Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd. p. 18. ISBN 9780955536618.
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